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Knoxville School Board Talks Class Size

Principals discussed class size issues with the Knoxville School Board during last Monday’s regular meeting. The school board’s biggest concern seemed to be at the Middle School, where a couple sections of language arts or math were as high as 36 students. The Middle School has eliminated a teacher in both subject areas since last year due to budget cuts. Middle School Principal Brian McNeil explained to the board the dynamics of creating a schedule. Typically, the students in advanced classes and the students in classes where skill-building is needed are separated at the beginning.

The middle group of students is then divided into classes based on an attempt make the classes even, but some periods end up larger than others due to a limited number of sections. The School Board agreed to look for solutions in fixing the problem while working on next year’s budget.